The alleged aggressor would be an inmate at the Las Mulas correctional facility.
MIAMI, United States. – The magazine’s Gender Observatory Tense Wings (OGAT) and the feminist platform YoSíTeCreo in Cuba (YSTCC) confirmed this Thursday the first verified feminicide on the Island in 2026: the violent death of nurse Magaly Aragón Aragón, 59, which occurred last Tuesday in the municipality of Jatibonico, in Sancti Spíritus, in an area linked to the Las Mulas prison camp, where the victim worked.
In the same message, the OGAT and YSTCC highlighted the sexual dimension of the attack and the attacker’s background: “We highlight and denounce the sexual nature of the violence that ended Magaly’s life, and the aggressor’s background of violence.”
In conversation with Martí News This Thursday, the director of OGAT, Ileana Álvarez, located the incident in a sugarcane field near the prison facility. The media indicated that the alleged aggressor would be an inmate at the Las Mulas correctional facility, and that internal structures of the penitentiary system would have indicated that the incident was under investigation.
In their balance updated until January 8, the observatories indicated that their record for the new year includes one feminicide and one attempted feminicide. They added that they maintain open verification processes on previously reported events: “We are investigating 12 possible femicides, four attempted feminicides and one murder of a man for gender reasons reported in 2025.”
The OGAT and YSTCC explained that the confirmation of this case – like others they document – is based on initial reports disclosed outside of state channels and later contrasted through support networks in the territories: “These facts were published by the media, citizens and activists, and verified with community sources by the joint effort of OGAT and YSTCC.”
The OGAT and YSTCC are today the main independent references in monitoring femicides on the Island. Given the absence or opacity of state data, these projects have become a key source for measuring sexist violence in Cuba.
Since 2019, both groups They have verified at least 300 femicides in Cubadespite operating in a hostile environment characterized by the criminalization of feminist activism, restricted access to institutional sources and the lack of a legal classification of feminicide in Cuban legislation.
While the authorities use expressions such as “murder for gender reasons” or “extreme gender violence”, independent groups insist on the need to name the problem as feminicide and demand the creation of public registration protocols and a comprehensive law against gender violence.
The Cuban State does not systematically publish annual statistics with detailed methodology nor does it offer disaggregated data with an intersectional approach accessible to citizens. This institutional opacity continues to be an obstacle to measuring the true magnitude of the phenomenon.
The OGAT and YSTCC maintain support lines and a mechanism for reporting and verifying femicides and attempts, supported by citizen complaints, media coverage and work in the territory. Its methodology—based on community verification and public documentation—is available in its institutional channels.
